Mercurial

Time’s definitely flowing strangely. Breaths takes forever, yet days vanish in an eye-blink. I can feel the moon, pulling at me. My thoughts run like mercury. That weird feeling’s back – the sense that my thoughts are being drawn into the rock, that they’re soaking out into the world, maybe even beyond the world. It’s the tunnel doing it to me. We’re in the tunnel now, retracing our route to the chasm where Kathy so nearly fell. I know what the things at the bottom of the chasm are now – they’re ironghylls, of course. This tunnel – the tunnel of all ends – is many things, but I keep coming back to what my mother once told me, back in the days of charm. She said the tunnel of all ends goes everywhere, all at once. It’s the spine about which the meat of all the worlds is wrapped. There’s a way in, and a way out, and between the two are all the ways that ever were. It’s full of souls, the tunnel of all ends: those who have roamed here forever, and call it home; those who are lost. I don’t care about them. I just care about the way down to the ironghylls, the way to my son. Once he’s free again, then I’ll rest. I’ve come a long way to get here – I’m not going to stop now.

I’m rambling, I know. I can’t help it. It’s the tunnel, eroding my mind. I was here before, and lost my grip on reality. I won’t let that happen again. Once we reach the chasm I’ll be free to fly. Then there’ll be no stopping me. There’s just one problem: I’ll have to leave Kathy behind.

I haven’t told her that yet.